San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has denied issuing a P500-million check to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
In a statement, the company disputed the veracity of the photo circulating on social media of a Banco de Oro (BDO) check addressed to Trillanes. The check was supposedly issued by an account in SMC’s name at the bank’s Tandang Sora branch and signed by its Senior Vice President, Chief Finance Officer and Treasurer Ferdinand K. Constantino.

The company, however, said the photo is “nothing more than a fabrication and a blatant disinformation.”
“SMC does not have an account in the said bank branch and has never issued such a check to Sen. Trillanes,” it said.
As proof, the company attached a certification from BDO stating that the account from which the check was supposedly funded was non-existent.
In the certification, the bank said: “account number 001168795215 does not exist in the Bank’s system and records. Further, the Bank does not have any record of any account being maintained by San Miguel Corporation with the Bank’s Tandang Sora branch.”
The document was signed by BDO First Vice President for Branch Banking Group Peter S. Lo Jr.
With no less than BDO denying the existence of the account which funded the check supposedly given to Trillanes, SMC said it is denouncing “in the strongest terms this apparent effort to deceive the public and drag our company’s good name in current political issues.”

As a “responsible corporate citizen,” the company said it enforces a strict code of ethics that ensures it “does the rght thing and that it safeguards the long-term interest of its customers and stakeholders.”
Photo of the check supposedly issued by SMC to Trillanes circulated after the senator alleged that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had P211 million stashed in a bank which he did not declare in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth.
Some netizens have linked the check to Senator Grace Poe since SMC chairman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco also founded the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) political party that is backing her presidential bid.